


Survivor(s)

by OhMistakeShiny



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death referenced, Gen, Sad, Sibling Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:28:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27008851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhMistakeShiny/pseuds/OhMistakeShiny
Summary: Canon Divergence. Ethlyn survives the Aed massacre with her daughter and manages to reunite with her older brother, Sigurd.
Relationships: Altena & Ethlyn (Fire Emblem), Altena & Sigurd, Ethlyn & Siglud | Sigurd
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Survivor(s)

**Author's Note:**

> Ethlyn is my favourite character from fire emblem and I had this idea of her surviving and reuniting with Sigurd. I want to do more chapters, some things about the canon will change but others will stay, even if he chapters are more little one-shots connected.  
> Hope you enjoy.

Sigurd moved slowly in the castle. It was late at night, everything was dark and the people was resting after the rough battle an extreme place the Aed dessert offered. He felt his arms and even his legs sore, every time it was more painful, after all these years of war the pain from every battle just got accumulated in his bones, he was sure of it, and he heard his own steps resound in his head. Too much silence.

He stopped in front of one of the doors. Without hesitation, he opened the door and entered in the room as quiet as he could be, looking immediately at the bed in front of the entrance, to be precise his eyes were fixed in the figure on the bed. He got closer to the bed, moving slower than before to not disturb, and when he was next the bed, he looked down, at the body. It was like looking at the past, he felt like the boy who had been ordered to wake up her sister by their mother, watching her asleep peacefully curled up in a ball hugging her favourite doll, only that this time the doll in her arms hold onto her as tightly as she was doing it to her, as if they would never separate each other, with their breathing synchronised. Erinys was visibly shocked when she had explained to him what had happened or at least what she have seen, both of them dirty, one of them even injured, with panic and desperation in their eyes, moving without a clear direction, only knowing where not to go, escaping the hell they had been and praying for a kind soul to help them. They had been lucky. They had been very lucky. After Lachesis had healed and helped them, both of them were passed out, completely exhausted. As they were now.

Sigurd sighed slowly, as if he was tasting the air, and shocked his head looking at them. Slowly, always slowly, he sat carefully at the edge of the bed and just looked at them, with a little smile and suppressing the desire to touch her hair, to not disturb her peacefully sleep, something he wanted to do to prove that they were really there, that they have escaped that hell. A hell, as they have been informed in Phinora, without any other survivor. His eyes fixed a moment on the little body sheltered by the woman. She was starting to move and her eyes opened, with confusion until her eyes made contact with the new person in the room. Immediately, as if it was a reflex action, the grip in the woman's arm from her little hands tightened and pulled back, to get more separated from him. The confusion was now fear. Too much fear for something so little.

He tried to calm her, reaching his hand carefully towards her and spoke,

"Altena"

He remembered perfectly the first time he read the name and all the joy he had felt after the letter announcing the new member in the family arrived to Chalphy. His niece. Someone he loved dearly even if he have never seen her before, until now. After she had heard her name she was still, but still looking at him with scared eyes. The woman woke up, probably after feeling the strong grip from her daughter, and looked at her, with the same confusion in her eyes as he had seen in the girl when she woke up. When she saw that the little girl had her eyes focused in something, she also looked in that direction. In her eyes appeared a little light as Sigurd could see when she looked at him, a little smile in her face also was shown as she got closer to him, reaching out her arms to embrace him. He let her hug him but he didn't hug her back, he only put his arms around her closing his eyes, he was scared that Ethlyn was not there, that this was just a dream and she would disappear as soon as he touched her, that it would happen like with Eldigan, Deirdre and even his father in his dreams, only to wake up in a world without them. But Ethlyn didn't disappeared when he hugged her, she only embraced him tightly and started sobbing, making him hold her tighter. He had opened his eyes but they were focused in the little girl who was now connected with her mother holding her waist. Sigurd closed his eyes.

"You're safe now" he told her.

She separated from him and tried to calm herself, breathing more calmly and wiping her tears while looking at her brother. The little girl demanded her attention and she quickly changed her sight, looking directly at her daughter whose frightened eyes were still fixed on her face, now mixed with a little of confusion. She whispered something to her mother but Ethlyn only shocked her head and gave a little laugh as she looked at Sigurd.

"He's not an stranger, he's mommy's brother. "Altena closed halfway her eyes to analyse Sigurd. "He's here to help us," Ethlyn looked at him. " aren't you?"

"Yeah of course. " His eyes focused on the little girl who was still looking at him with suspicion. He reached his hand towards her, introducing himself. " I'm Sigurd, your uncle."

Altena looked at her mother, searching for approval as she was still not comfortable around him. Ethlyn nodded and Altena took the man's hand. " I'm Altena" she said, a little reluctant.

"Nice to meet you, Altena."

The girl returned to hide behind her mother's arm. The two siblings held each other's hands, Sigurd only wanted to make Ethlyn feel comforted and a part of him still wanted to make sure she was really there. The two looked at their hands intertwined, Sigurd opened his mouth but he didn't know exactly how to address what was on their minds while Ethlyn's eyes watered a bit, with the tears not rolling down her cheeks yet, with the sadness stucked in her.

"What did happen?" The words finally escaped his mouth, as a whisper, almost imperceptible. But the woman heard it.

Ethlyn breathed hard. The tears escaped her eyes again. She took a deep breath and shocked her head. Sigurd watched her and felt horrible. He could imagine how horrible the event had been but there was an enormous difference between imagine it and be there. It was hard to think about, it was only harder to revive it in memories. Sigurd hold her hand tighter. But after a moment, she finally said something, as low as her brother had talked. "I don't know."

Sigurd looked at her and her eyes were fixed on the wall in front of her but she was not looking at it, her vision was probably very far from here, in place and time. "I..." She continued, a little louder but still barely a whisper. "Quan.... didn't expect it. No one did. He expected they would attack Leonster. It was prepared like that." Tears rolled free on her cheeks. She closed her eyes.

He caressed very carefully her back with his free hand. "Thracia?" It was not really a question, he already knew the answer, the dracoknights could only be from there.

She nodded and opened her eyes. " They appeared from nowhere. Going straight after us. Too many of them. We fought but..." she didn't want to continue. Silence flooded the room.

"What were you doing there?"

She looked directly to him. "What?"

He got up from the bed and turned his back. "And with Altena..." He whispered. " Why were you there? You have a baby at home, almost a newborn " He repeated with a bit of sadness in his voice.

Ethlyn opened her mouth, took a deep breath and shocked her head, " I wanted to be with my husband." she expressed with honesty.

"With the kid?" He asked, looking directly at her.

She shrank and bit her lip. Sigurd immediately saw how she looked when she did something wrong and someone caught her doing it when she was little. "She was crying and Quan and I agreed that we would only walk with them until before the Aed desert."

"But you continued"

"Yeah, I did." Ethlyn picked Altena up and hugged her before she got up and looked at her brother's eyes. " Why are you judging me?"

"I'm not judging you, I just want to know why you were in danger, with your daughter when you were not suppose to be there."

Ethlyn frowned subtly. " Because, after everything, I was scared. Because I didn't want to separate from my husband after what happened to Deirdre, because I wanted to see that my brother was well after all the horrible things that had happened..." Sigurd tried to get to her but she pulled back. " I know it was stupid and reckless but I just couldn't separate from him or separate her from me, even if stay five minutes with him has probably killed him." She cried.

"Ethlyn that's not true. It's not your fault."

" Yes it is. I saw him give up when we were running. He dropped the Gae Bolg for us to escape." she explained, with the voice cracking with the last sentence. Altena was looking at her scared.

Sigurd stayed silent. "I'm sorry, Ethlyn." It was the only thing he could say, he knew that there wasn't any other survivors. And he didn't need to tell her because she already know it. "I'm really sorry." He got closer to her and this time she let him hug her. " I didn't want to judge you, I promise. I was also scared." Tears started to form in his eyes. "When the news came, when Erinys told us about that you were there and injured and with Altena I was feeling so scared and then the news about Quan and I was feeling horrible. Because I have lost so many people and I don't know what I would have felt if something had happened to you or to little Altena." He caressed his niece's hair. I don't want to lose you too."

The two cried together while Altena hugged her mother and looked to them both. So many emotions inside after too many tragedies in so little time, both felt exhausted and that moment just felt cathartic, finally letting out part of the sadness their hearts were buried in. The two continued just crying some more time.

When the two calmed a little, both siblings sat again in the bed. Ethlyn put her daughter to sleep and caressed her hair until she fell asleep while Sigurd looked at the scene smiling with a little sadness. After she was finally sleeping, Ethlyn and Sigurd looked at each other and she started talking, " I wish we could go back to the 757. Nothing of this would have happened." Sigurd hugged her with an arm.

"Edain would still need my help."

Ethlyn smiled softly and sighed. "And you would still need mine, in that case."

"I don't know when everything was messed up, but I'm sorry I dragged you and Quan in this."

" It's not your fault, we wanted to help and we couldn't image all of this happening."

The two remained in that position, being grateful that they could be together in these hard moments.


End file.
